Mercer vs Landstar

I thought on another thread you claimed Mercer was playing games? LOL you got me confused

 

Mercer does play games. However, it's about who plays the worst games. All carriers play games. Failstar is the worst of them all. Mercer does have some resemblance of control over their brokers and behavior...and they do take action. Failstar on the other hand is a rip off free for all. It would be like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

 

with landstar alot of brokers are hesitant to award loads. Me personally id rather give load back then deal with a MC number affailated with Landstar. Call brokers in your area and ask if they work with landstar

 

Talked to Brandon (a recruiter at Mercer) yesterday, and don't know if he was simply saying what he thought I wanted to hear, or if this is actually the way it is - maybe someone can clarify - but he said that with Mercer's load board, you can actually click on the load and assign it to yourself, similar to the way Schneider IC and Interstate guys do. Again, no clue as to the veracity of his claim (he's a recruiter - I've been both in the Army and in trucking a little over 11 years so i know all too well how they can weave fiction into their stories - probably more than what's on the paper logs I used to keep!). If what he's saying has any truth to it though, that's another advantage Mercer has...you can still have a dispatcher ("coordinator") if you like, but can also grab stuff of the board. No clue how good those loads are or aren't, either - but it's still an option.

 

You can go online and click "willing to commit if dispatched" but the load still needs to make it down to you (if everyone who unloaded in that area before you passed that load up and that load is actually offered down to you from that agent then you must commit. Your coordinator must still allocate the cash advance to your fuel card before the end of business hrs or you'll need to wait til next business hrs or call after hrs..

 

Ahhh...that does make more sense, given their FIFO policy.

 

I'm pulling a flat at Mercer. So far, I can only complain about the rates/quality of loads. But rates are down and it is winter time.

I look at the online board daily and chose my own loads. Before the new board came out I looked at all freight and don't recall there being a lot of "team" loads on the van side. Maybe a van puller can verify or deny that. Team runs seem to be fairly rare on the flat side.

 

Like I said many brokers at Mercer are just plain lazy. The rates on the vast majority of the loads are off load boards. Basically it's double and triple brokering. Everyone gets to take a bite out of the sandwich before it gets to you....and you are left with crust.

If Mercer would crack the whip on some of these pajama brokers (they just sit around in their jammies on a laptop looking at other companies load boards) and let the real brokers take their territory.....things would be better.

 

Is there anyone currently parked at the Mercer yard in Louisville? It's Sunday 3pm right now. Should I try to come down or..is the place parked up?

 

Should be plenty of room on a Sunday.